Birthdays
by Kuroshi44
Summary: Ciel and Allen meet in England in December and discuss the horror of birthdays, since both lost their families during that dreaded time.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary; Ciel and Allen meet and discuss the horror of birthdays, since both lost their families on that dreaded day**

 **Set while both boys are thirteen. Just after the jack the ripper ark black butler manga (so after the birthday chapter) and while Allen was traveling with Cross.**

The December English air was cool and crisp with just the faintest hint of snow for the morning. Adults were scurrying around and trying to escape the chill wind, children were running and laughing and planning all the snow fights they were to have once the promised snow arrived. The cheer seemed infections, for even those that didn't have the time to spend wandering the streets looking at Christmas things still had smiles on their faces as they saw all the brightly coloured decorations.

All except two that is.

Allen Walker was not having a good day. His "Guardian" or "Master" as he was made to call him had once again drunk several bars out of liquor and disappeared before paying for the alcohol. Allen now had even more debt that he had to pay off at several establishments, was meant to picking up more wine for the drunkard when no one was selling to him, and was continuously getting whispered about for his strange looks; though the last one didn't matter so much so long as they didn't get violent.

If that wasn't bad enough, the Christmas decorations served as a constant reminder of what day was coming up. Cross didn't care about the day, thankfully, and didn't expect to do anything for the occasion; everyone else however seemed to take great joy in his most hated time.

Ciel noticed the boy for his strange looks first. The white hair tucked under a knitted hat and a red scar running down the side of his face, as well as the fact that he looked rather _young_ to be arguing with a bar tender to try and procure alcohol. The second thing that drew Ciel to the boy was something that no one else seemed to notice.

The child was just as empty as he was.

The way he acted was simply that, an act. A good one; but an act none the less. The boy looked like a polite child trying to use tears and fear to get what he wanted; if you knew what to look for however that observation was quickly proved false. The posture was one street urchins used when expecting to be hit, the expression wasn't quiet innocent enough to claim genuine, and the eyes were the ones Ciel saw in the mirror when he was practicing looking adorable before he had had to flirt with the Viscount (something that was still a little too fresh in his memory).

But the thing that had Ciel giving the order to help the boy was the very real flinch he gave whenever he happened to catch sight of Christmas decorations. A person walking by with holly in their hair, a child with a brightly wrapped present, and that one person who had the gall to sing Christmas carols as they tried to get to their destination. This would be very interesting.

Allen was mad as hell as the bartender sold the last bottle of the wine he needed to the red eyed man in a tail coat, more so when the bartender sneered and rejoiced in the fact that the wine was now gone. Allen was incredibly glum as he followed the man out of the store.

Only to have the bottle shoved in his face.

'It would appear my Young Master has taken an interest in you. Be happy.'

Before Allen could start worrying about what "interest" this master may have taken in him a voice called out to them from an alleyway right beside them.

'Sebastian, that's enough.' The voice was strong, commanding, and way too high to belong to an adult.

'Yes, my lord.' The tail coat man responded.

The owner of the voice stepped from the gloom and Allen was rather surprised. The clothes were rich, the face was young, and he held a cynicism in his eye that matches his from when the only name he had had was Red.

The boy was addressing him now. 'You may have the wine without payment, call it a lure if you will; however I am also willing to offer you a decent meal since you've don't look like you've had one in a while, though that one you will have to pay for.'

Allen looked at him, trying to hide the calculations going on in his head. The boy had made it clear he knew he didn't have money, which meant he wanted something else. Normally when people tried to make that deal with him they had something specific in mind, something he didn't give if at all avoidable. He had made the mistake of taking without asking the cost once, and never again.

'What do you want?' he asked warily.

Ciel smiled at the boys question, he had been right.

'Information,' he said easily, 'on why you seem to hate Christmas so much.'

Allen blinked. That was … not what he was expecting.

'Why on earth would you want to know? What's it matter to you?' the smile dropped of the other boy's face, a look of boredom replacing it.

'Curiosity, it's not often that I meet someone my own age who shares my dislike of this particular time,' was the answer, one that had Allen interested. 'Besides, something tells me we may have more in common than most, your mask is good but I think it might take a few more years before you can perfect it.' the smile was back as the boy so casually called him out on something very few others seemed to see.

Allen found himself nodding in agreement to the deal.

The place they went was cheap but sold good, solid food and didn't question the amount ordered, though Allen's two companions did raise eyebrows. Allen didn't particularly care, he was being fed and all he had to do was answer questions, hopefully.

One thing could be said for the boy with the eyepatch, he had the decency to wait until after Allen's stomach had stopped rumbling. 'So, now it's time for your part of the deal, why do you hate Christmas?'

'Can I at least have the name of the person requesting my life story?' Allen said in the politest voice he had. The boy smiled and the tailcoat man smirked.

'My name is Ciel, Earl of Phantomhive, and I run Funtom Toy Company.' Even Allen knew those names. The Earl of Phantomhive was something that was talked about a lot on the streets of London; both as something to be feared and thankful for. The name was almost a Phantom in itself, used to keep the less manageable gangs in place. When he found out about Akuma and anti-Akuma weapons and all that he had wondered in the Phantomhives were Akuma themselves, with the way they could remove whole crime syndicates without a trace overnight.

Now he could see for himself that the Queen's Watch dog was just a human boy his own age, and that scared him more than if he had met a monster.

'If you have finished day dreaming,' the scathing voice commented, 'I would like my answer now.'

Allen swallowed, maybe best to answer truthfully after all.

'It's not Christmas I hate, it's my birthday that happens to be on the same date.' For a second he saw surprise, then the boy he was talking to burst out laughing.

'It seems we have more in common than I thought, my birthday was just a few days ago.' Allen tried to process that, couldn't, and gave up. 'So why do you hate this day that society dictates we celebrate?'

For a split second Allen hesitated, then gave up and told him everything except the stuff relating to Akumas, he wasn't quite ready to admit his insanity just yet, and couldn't bring himself to admit to that sin out loud.

The laughter had vanished from Ciel's eye and he sighed.

'I wonder if our meeting was coincidence, or some higher power having fun,' the boy muttered. At Allen's look he elaborated. 'The amount we have in common is rather amazing, I wonder if there is was a curse on December three years ago.

'You see, three years ago was my tenth birthday as well. It was going to be a grand affair, as it normally is for rich people, with all my family and friends arriving and having a good time.

'Only it didn't turn out that way. Instead my entire family, even my dog, were murdered and the house burned to the ground. My father's butler and I were the only survivors, and he was left fairly close to crippled.

'I was captured, sold, and used as a "pet", as I guess you could call it, for several months; though anyone treating an animal like that would likely be arrested.

'I learnt the surprising amount of suffering that humanity can cram into that short time.

'So we have much more in common than I originally thought. It seems we both hate that one day on which we are meant to celebrate our life, it seems we both lost the things most important in ours on that same day.'

Allen was silent; he had never expected to find someone that shared his hatred for their birthday and Christmas, especially one that had a similar reason.

'But you left something out,' Ciel said after a moment, 'I don't know what, but I can tell by the look in your eyes. What aren't you telling me?'

'What makes you so sure that I haven't said everything already?' the white haired boy sounded genuinely curious. Ciel snorted.

'We're a little too alike, I can read you like a book. The mask you wear doesn't quite fit yet.'

'You would never believe me.'

'You'd be surprised.'

'Do you believe in Akuma?'

'That's Japanese for demon, Right?' Ciel said with a rather strange look at the man in the tail coat.

'Yes, or something like that …' and with that Allen found himself explaining about Akuma and the mess he had managed to get himself into.

Silence, then; 'this is really just ridiculous, I would laugh if your story wasn't so tragic.'

'What do you mean?'

'What I mean,' Ciel said in that voice used with children, 'is that our stories are so ridiculously similar that, if I hadn't destroyed the evidence myself, I would be suspecting that you were playing a joke on me.' Allen stared at him in confusion. 'Demons, I am talking about demons. Though the one I know is a little different to the ones you described.'

And so Ciel told him about the _other_ type of demon that was out there, the one that had been standing next to them for the entire conversation.

Allen suddenly found himself agreeing that the similarities were almost alarming in there frequency. He was also looking at the tail coat man, Sebastian, with new eyes and had a rather important question.

'Why are you telling me your life story? I mean, I traded mine for food so why are you giving yours away for free?'

'Maybe because were so similar? Maybe it because it feels good to be able to connect with someone over such similarities for once in my life? Or maybe because I feel a fake sense of empathy for someone who also hates their birthday?'

Sebastian spoke up for the first time since he had shoved the bottle in Allen's face. 'My Lord, if we stay here any longer we are going to fall behind schedule.'

'Yes,' Ciel muttered as he stood, 'you're right.' The boy hesitated a second before he walked through the door, and then passed Allen a card. 'That's my address, if you're ever in town again and in need of a feed either I or one of my servants should be able to accommodate you, assuming we all live long enough to do so.' Allen shivered at the words but nodded and put the card in a safe place. The words were ominous but true and no reason to pass up a potential free meal.

'Goodbye.' Allen muttered to the retreating figures.

Allen never did get to see Ciel a second time. Two years later saw him in London again, but just a few questions were enough to learn that the other had passed. People commented about what a shame it was with his youth to have gone so early.

For a second Allen wondered if the boy had managed his revenge, and realized that if he hadn't he probably would be hearing from a rather irate ghost pretty soon. Ciel just wasn't the type to give up his soul after being cheated out of something that big.


	2. unexpected sort of sequel

**Allen never did get to see Ciel a second time, alive that is.** **Ciel got his revenge, didn't mean he wasn't an irate ghost though. Allen and the gang are in England for a mission during December and said ghost decides to crash the party.**

Allen walked along the snow covered streets with a smile on his face and a weight in his heart. They were in England for a mission, it was Christmas, he was with his friends and family and that was good, they wanted to celebrate his birthday with him and that was not.

He loved them dearly, they were all he had, but right now he wished they would just leave him alone. It was so confusing having to juggle them and his mask and his birthday all at once, ad in that he was in London and it became something he just didn't want to deal with.

'Hey, Moyashi-chan, what about here?' Lavi called from the front of a confectionary store.

'That should be perfect,' Lenalee squealed before becoming slightly more sedate, 'right, Allen-chan?'

 _Grin and bear it,_ were the words on constant repeat through Allen's head. They were currently "birthday shopping" on Lenalee's suggestion; Lavi had somehow gotten a hold of the information and, being the irritating Usagi that he was, had spilled the beans and set Lenalee off. Kanda, the lucky bastard and fourth member of the team on their current mission, had managed to skip out due to his general mood; Allen was rather jealous.

As he walked into the shop he made the mistake of looking up; it was a chain store, and a popular one at that, but the name still made his heart skip a beat.

Funtom, Ciel's company; and another reminder of another depressing thing.

This was London; his (supposed) birthplace, the place where he met Mana, the place he lost Mana, and the place he had met and lost Ciel; the only person he could really identify with after the incident.

And now he was walking into one of the chain stores that Ciel had run while he was alive. He vaguely wondered who was running it now.

He didn't realise that he had spoken out loud until Lavi commented on it.

'What was that, Moyashi-chan?' he asked innocently, though chances were he knew.

'Oh,' another fake smile, 'I was just wondering who was currently running the Funtom Company.' He saw the curiosity on their faces, but was saved from answering by a _very_ unexpected interruption.

'Francis Midford, officially, but I don't think it would still be this successful if she actually had any say in the decision making.' No, it wasn't possible. 'Hello, Allen, I haven't seen you in years.'

Allen turned around slowly. A smile so bright and innocent it could rot your teeth. An eye the colour of heaven that looked like it was planning the best place to slit your throat, the other covered by an eye patch. Expensive cloths made to look normal, hair the colour of slate. He must have gone made because his eyes were definitely telling him a lie.

Lenalee was rather smitten the moment she laid eyes on the boy, he was so cute and looked so young that she was reminded of Allen and wanted nothing more than to hug him. She held back for several reasons however.

One; they were exorcists dressed in uniform. People didn't normally approach them unless they were Akuma; of course the in-built paranoia had dissipated somewhat with the arrival of Allen, and the boy had called their friend by name so he might have a good reason for approaching them –except for one problem.

Allen was not responding, in fact he hadn't moved since he had seen this otherwise unthreatening boy enter the shop. Lenalee was preparing to activate her innocence and Lavi had his hand on his hammer; there was something wrong here. The person they relied on (maybe a bit too heavily) to inform them of a threat was acting as if he was paralysed and the rest of the group was considering the possibility of a level two or more Akuma.

'Hi, we're friends of Allen,' Lenalee said in her best attempt at a normal voice. 'I don't suppose you would mind telling us who you are?'

'Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners? My name is Ciel, and this is Sebastian,' the boy gestured over his shoulder at a man that Komui would never have let his darling sister near in a million years. 'I've known Allen for a few years. I keep telling him to stop by when he's in town and I'll give him a free meal, but he seems to always forget.'

Allen didn't respond to the jab, in fact Allen still wasn't responding at all.

'Hey, Moyashi-chan, why didn't you introduce us to people offering a free meal?' Lavi said, trying to get Allen out of whatever trance he was in. The hand the redhead placed on his shoulder seemed to do the trick.

'Hmm? What?' seeing the looks on the two exorcist faces he suddenly woke up. 'Oh! Its fine, Ciel's not an Akuma. I just … wasn't expecting to see him, that's all.' Ciel raised an eyebrow at the casual mention of the creatures, so too did his friends.

'Um, Allen-Chan?' Lenalee was wondering if she should be checking for a temperature. Before Allen could respond Ciel seemed to get tired of the way things were going and instead took control of the conversation.

'I'm afraid I didn't catch your names. As friends of Allen, I wonder if you would be so kind as to introduce yourselves, since we did give you our names?'

Shaking her head to try and rid herself of the confusing events Lenalee gave put introductions. 'My name is Lenalee, this is Lavi, and the three of us were just out shopping.'

'Excellent, it is a pleasure to meet you. Since we all know each other's names I wonder if it would be too much trouble if I steal Allen for a short while? Catch up and all that since we haven't seen each other in so long? No? Good, Sebastian can show you to the restaurant where we will meet up with you.' And with that the short boy had Allen by the arm and was dragging him from the store.

It took Allen a little longer than he would like to admit to come to his sense, by that time they were many blocks from the Funtom shop that still contained his friends.

'How are you alive? They told me you were dead, everyone said that you were dead.' Allen had a feeling that he was missing something, something about the way Ciel looked wasn't quite right, he finally noticed at the same time Ciel laughed.

'I am dead, I got my revenge and Sebastian got my soul. The problem is that Sebastian is a damn demon, and a bored one at that, so rather than just consuming my soul he released it from my body and bound it to his own to wonder around London as a source of entertainment. That'll last until he finally gets bored of me or gets too hungry and decides to consume me.'

Allen could see it now, his curse was reacting but what it saw was so different he hadn't noticed. Akuma souls were chained, tortured and corrupted; Ciel was a completely normal human soul except for a single chain that seemed to run from his eyepatch back the way they had come.

'He takes great pleasure in watching me squirm, when this time of year comes around,' Ciel continued.

There was silence for only a second or two before Allen broke it.

'So, you got your revenge?'

'Yes, I did,' a slight smile.

'Was it as fulfilling as you thought it would be?'

There was a dark glint in Ciel's eye as he replied, 'even better than I could possibly have imagined.' Now it was Ciel's turn to pause before bringing up a less pleasant topic. 'I take it your war is still in full swing, however?'

Allen laughed without humour, 'You have no idea.'

'Want to tell me? You seem to have perfected your mask so I assume you have things you are still keeping from your "friends", though I don't put much faith in people who make that claim and can't even see how painful this time of year is for you. Why don't you tell me what you can't bring yourself to tell them? After all, dead men rarely tell secretes.' Ciel smiled but Allen frowned at his words, he couldn't disagree but he wasn't happy about the slur on his friends.

But he told him everything anyway, everything about the fourteenth, the current predicament with the heart of innocence, and just how scared he was of losing himself and hurting those he cared about. Death, to him, would be the better option.

After he finished his explanation he felt a little better, but was a little surprised at Ciel's complete lack of said emotion.

'Well, that explains it,' he muttered.

'Excuse me?' Allen almost yelled.

'I said that explains it, after we left last time Sebastian told me about several … circumstances … regarding the state of your soul. It was one of the reasons why I didn't put up to much resistance when he made me hang around; I was hoping to run into you so I could talk to you about it.

'Last time Sebastian talked about sensing multiple souls coming from your body, one of which was the complete soul and memory of someone else set to rewrite and take over your mind. I had wondered if he was lying, but as the dead I can sense if for myself now.'

Allen didn't know how to feel about that; so even ghosts could tell that he was going to die, it was not a comforting thought.

Then Ciel was talking again, 'but there are several other things about your story that don't make sense; I would like to point out that it is impossible for Mana to have given you the soul, it is also impossible for him to have sort you out because of it.' Allen tried not to show the confusion and hope that he felt at those words as Ciel explained.

'I told you that Sebastian could sense the state of your soul, but that is only because of the type of demon he is, I doubt that your Mana was a demon like Sebastian.' Allen had to admit it was unlikely. 'Also, I can sense it only because the soul is now starting assert itself, several years ago I wouldn't have been able to tell even if I had been a ghost, which brings me to the second thing that doesn't make sense.

'According to Sebastian, it takes a hostile soul thirty to forty years of assimilating into the body before it can begin to take over. The weaker the soul was the longer it takes, if the soul was given to you after death it would take closer to forty years, fifty if you didn't give permission. That means that it is impossible for Mana to have given you the soul, it also makes it ridiculously unlikely that you are as young as you look.

'You're missing information, and a lot of it by the looks; speaking from experience, even when short of time, a decision made on false information causes more harm than good. A little tip from someone who made it his business to dispose of criminals and seek revenge.'

Allen felt lighter than he had in months, and also more confused than he had ever thought possible.

Slowly they made their way to the restaurant where they would meet the others. They talked about the years apart and the funny stories about life at the order, Ciel made several comments that suggested he thought he could have won the war already if he was in charge; Allen made several that suggested he was egotistical and biased.

Eventually they arrived and his friends looked shocked to see him laughing. Allen felt lighter and suddenly everything seemed that much more bearable.

 **DGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGM**

Sebastian smiled as his "Master" wondered off with his white haired friend, now it was time to put his end of the plan into action.

He wasn't sure why, but he had found in recent years that he just couldn't help but interfere with human lives; he couldn't help but use rather abrasive and extreme method to try and help them on their way. The people he was currently talking to were friends, albeit rather ignorant ones, of Allen Walker; and while he didn't really care, his master had a soft spot for the boy, and it was always interesting to watch his master work.

Lenalee was looking after them in concern and Lavi was debating the merit of running after them and dragging Allen back the hotel that they were staying in, they were interrupted form their thoughts by Sebastian making a rather surprising comment.

'Well, that relieves some of my stressful thoughts; I was worried about the two of them, considering the time of year and all.'

Lenalee frowned, 'Why would the time of year make you worry about them.'

Sebastian gave them a surprised look, faked but they didn't know that. 'You mean you don't know? I thought you said you were his friends?'

Lavi felt Lenalee bristle next to him; quite honestly he wanted to do the same. He was a junior bookman and boasted of his observation skills and photographic memory, what did this man know that he had supposedly missed?

'It's Christmas time, and both of them hate the celebration with a passion.' Lavi felt himself go into shock over the fact that he could have missed something like that, he watched as Lenalee seemed to get a little smaller. 'As I said, as friends I'm surprised you didn't know. He wouldn't have said anything, neither of them would without certain circumstances, but if you really did claim to know him as a friend I thought one of you would have noticed his lack of enthusiasm for the upcoming date.'

The two looked at each other. Had they missed something like that? Both had been rather wrapped up in the mission and the idea that they would miss Christmas with the Order and had assumed that Allen's slight decrease in mood was for the same reason. When Lavi had revealed when Allen's birthday was they had jumped at the chance to celebrate with him, had the person they claimed to be such good friends with been only pretending to be happy to avoid hurting their feelings?

Sebastian kept talking despite the two exorcists' falling mood.

'It was several years ago that those two met, it was around this time of year then as well. Quite honestly I don't think my master has ever shown that much interest in someone not related by blood or business before, or since. I think he sensed a kindred spirit; after all, this is the time of year that our society decided we should celebrate, yet for those two it is a time for grief. This is the time of year when they lost everything, and both of them lost it on the day they should have been celebrating there birthday.'

Quietly Sebastian started walking in the direction of the rather expensive restaurant that his master had owned in life, Agni still cooked there and he had agreed to feed the three people following him for free. As he walked he continued talking, recounting the meeting all those years ago and the stories the two had told while they forged of bond of shared misery and dislike of the public holiday and day of birth.

He left quite a few details out of course, he only told them the meeting and the fact that both had lost someone precious on that day rather than all the gory details after. They walked in silence after that, the two "friends" lost in grief at their own stupidity, something Sebastian was more than happy to let them do.

Eventually they arrived at their destination and were left to wait for the other two to arrive; Sebastian suspected they would be taking the long way round in order to catch up on the many years apart.

Just as his master began to get close he decided to leave them with one final line.

'Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone is to notice that they are unhappy about something and leave them to their grief. Not all losses can be forgotten about with happy lights and bright colours; we cannot force our happiness on someone else.'

The exorcists didn't get a chance to respond as they were startled by the appearance of the Allen, so reserved earlier, laughing at something Ciel had said. They were even more shocked as Kanda wandered in muttering something about the place being the only one that sold decent soba.

The two strangers didn't stay for lunch, and Lavi couldn't even begin to guess at the secretive smile on Allen's face as they left with a promise that they would pay for everything they ordered.

Years would pass and things would change but one tradition had been started that would probably never stop. Every year at Christmas, instead of celebrations and presents, a group of friends would meet with a ghost and talk about life and death and all things ordinary and celebrate those that were gone and those that were not. Nothing of birthdays or Christmas was mentioned, just good food, wine and company.

And that was exactly how they liked it.

 **An: rather different type of ending then the other chapter, just felt they had to meet again. I don't know the end of the manga so hopefully nothing in this will contradict it. Link wasn't there because Kanda was and Link was need somewhere else, plus I don't like writing him at the moment.**


End file.
